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HomeNews and ViewsNews ReleasesEquiniti Announces Partnership With Certainty The National Will Register

Equiniti Announces Partnership With Certainty The National Will Register

13 August 2018

Equiniti, the specialist administrator receiving over 50% of death notifications in the UK each year is delighted to announce its partnership with Certainty the National Will Register.

This strategic relationship will enable Equiniti’s bereavement services team, to offer all of its customers’ access to the Certainty Will Search and the National Will Register, enabling the customer to locate the last known Will of the recently deceased and give peace of mind.

A Certainty Will Search checks over seven million Wills in the registration system and can search for those Wills that have not been registered by searching solicitors and Will Writers across the country. In addition, a notification is placed on the Certainty Missing Will Notice Board which is accessed daily by 5,500 solicitors who are members of the National Will Register which will give Equiniti’s customers the best possible chance of recovering Wills.

Locating Wills is an important step following a bereavement, as identifying whether a Will exists and is in its most current version can avoid issues arising later in the process of distributing an estate during probate. The Law Society recommends using Certainty the National Will Register to check for Wills and by completing a Will search, both the Executor and the Administrator can prevent any risk of breach of duty that may occur.

Stuart Simpson, Head of Equiniti Benefactor, the bereavement services team at Equiniti, commented:

“We are delighted to partner with Certainty the National Will Register. Certainty Will Search is an essential service to anybody distributing an estate, this makes them a natural fit for our business, and this arrangement will be hugely complementary to the bereavement services that we are able to offer to our customers.

“The identification of Wills and gaining the most up-to-date version can be an exhausting and an emotional experience following a bereavement. Our partnership with Certainty the National Will Register will simplify this process for our customers by providing the most thorough search possible and, in tandem with Equiniti Benefactor’s customer service and administrative capabilities, give all customers peace of mind and protection.”

Rob Brown, Director at Certainty the National Will Register, added:

“Equiniti’s platform and reach means this partnership will enable more people than ever to gain the assurance born from knowing they have access to all the correct documents at what is a very difficult time. Like Equiniti, our specially trained staff have significant experience dealing with bereavement and the vast administrative challenges that family members, friends, administrators, executors and professional executors all face. At least 1 in every 10 Certainty Will Searches results in either a Will that was previously thought not to exist being discovered or a Will being found that would supersede the current Will being used to distribute a client’s estate. A Certainty Will Search takes seconds to do and the low cost of the search can be reclaimed from the estate”.

This additional service can be accessed through Equiniti’s Customer Service Centre on 0371 384 2793 or online through Shareview here.

For more information:

Temple Bar Advisory

Notes to Editor:

About Equiniti

Equiniti Group is an administrator outsourcer delivering technology-enabled solutions to some of the world’s best-known brands and UK’s largest public-sector organisations.

Equiniti’s services, which are delivered by over 4,578 employees, benefit 28 million people in the UK and 120 countries around the world.

Equiniti Benefactor receives approximately 1,000 notifications of death on an average day which equates to more than 50% of the total number of deaths in the UK each year and manages around 500 estates value at over £213 million supporting over 1,200 beneficiaries.

About Certainty

Certainty the National Will Register is the legally accredited and recognised National Will Register for the UK and is chosen, endorsed and used by the public, legal profession, law firms, Will writers, PI insurers, Government agencies, charities, the public and other associated sectors and organisations to Register Wills and Search for Wills.

Thousands of law firms have led the way with Certainty to build a National Will Register and National Will Search Service over the last decade. Certainty provides fundamental protection for executors, beneficiaries and administrators and the probate profession distributing estates by minimising the risk of another Will being discovered after the estate has been distributed.

At least 1 in every 10 Certainty Will searches in 2017 resulted in a Will being discovered where the estate was presumed intestate or a later, unknown Will being brought to light. A Will Search checks to see if a Will has been registered with Certainty the National Will Register and also conducts a nationwide geographically-targeted search for Wills that have not been registered (includes Certainty member and non-member law firms as well as Will Writers from the two main organisations, Institute of Professional Will Writers and The Society of Will Writers).

The National Will Register has 7.7 million Will records in the system (and increasing daily). In 2017 notable Will registration peaks included 103,000 Wills being registered in 72 hours and 270,000 in one month.